We Have History
by FrankandJoe3
Summary: This is how Dick got the disguise charm for Artemis. Slight Chalant


**In English, our project was to write a two page (or more) story about how a boy deceives a girl to get what he wants. Sexist, I know, but our teacher's old so no one questions her. I just followed the rubric. I still don't support Chalant, but I've had this idea in my head ever since Dick said that he and Zatanna had history. I was originally going to have it that she was in the circus too, but that's another fic for another day.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or its characters.**

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Zatanna didn't much visit Mt. Justice, finding the Watchtower her home now with the League ranking that had her known to anyone with News channels or the pleasure to meet her acquaintance. Her only reason to ever allow the ZETA to even utter her name throughout the so-called 'cave' was for nothing above nostalgia—or when she was called there, which was her circumstance this time.

Regularly she would dilly about and waste time on a call that wasn't full scale emergency; there were other Leaguers on hold who could handle the problem just as easily as she could. There was only one call from the whole League, let alone world, that she would drop literally everything from her gloved hands to answer when, "Please help" were the first two words of the distress call.

"Nightwing…" his name left her lips delicately, her dark eyebrows furrowed and her hands nervously ringing.

Her heels clicked against the concrete floor as she walked, making the silence just that much edgier, her toes curling up against the padded soles beneath them. By the time she had gotten over the chills it gave her to call for him again, she was in the living room with her half-exposed thigh brushing the couch back.

Her skirt was a lot shorter than it needed to be her, blouse opened a button too much, the black jacket parted evenly to display her chest and its lack of symbol. The bouncy curls, shadowed in tone, were full and passionate swirls rising a full two inches from where each distorted ringlet hit between her shoulder blades. Her eyelashes may have been lengthened to the perfect batting level and her lips may have been fuller, but that could've just been part of the magical charm that hung over her like a sweet-smelling perfume.

Her lips parted to call again, but a tan hand delved into her half-formed fist and shut her instantly up, tugging her quick across the hardwood until they were back into the hall full of dorms, not a word uttered until an automated door slid shut fast behind them.

"Sorry. Privacy. Needed. Um. Help. Yours. I need your help. _Bad_," Dick spoke in fragment, releasing her hand as he caught her staring at where they touched, violently disheveling his brunette hair with his fingers.

His eyebrows furrowed and the rings under his eyes hinted at a sleepless week, his white shirt openly tugged down from his neck to show his collar bones. His lips were hard chapped, deep ruts burrowed along the seam in his frown.

Zatanna walked over and reclaimed his hands from his hair, holding them so he would stop hurting himself and messing up his perfect hair, a warm smile opening her lips. She met his eyes, blue-on-blue, her fingers comfortingly furled over the back of her palm.

"Of course I'll help," she gently cooed, pulling their hands in and resting them against her heart, "What's wrong?"

Dick slipped out his hands, fidgeting nervously before he collapsed down to his bed, first on his back with his hands cradling his face. When that didn't seem to work, he was sitting up, his elbows on his knees, protecting his eyes from her gaze.

"No, no, no," he murmured, screwing his eyes up tight, "This is bad. It's… it's bad. Never as simple as you think… far from righteous. Wrongeous** [1]**? That a word? It is now. Not fair… Just…"

Zatanna clicked her heels against the floor, smoothing out the back of her skirt before calmly sitting beside him, barely a foot separating their thighs. She rubbed his jean-covered thigh consolingly, meeting his gaze with the same sympathetic look from before.

"I won't judge you. We all make mistakes on the way to our destination… that's what makes it life. Just tell me what happened and I'll try to help you," she used her eyelashes well, resting her hands again in her lap when she took the hint to back off from the ebony's expression.

If sighs could be violent, the one Dick let off was homicidal in manner, his teeth lightly tearing at the side of his frown with a few contradicting mumbles sliding past the open side of his mouth from beneath his breath.

"If Batman finds out…" his hands anxiously shook before he pulled himself together sharply and spoke fast before he crumpled again.

"When I was… younger… a kid I guess… I uh… my… family… had a run in with a mob boss and his gang. Italians, out for contortion money. They wanted what we didn't have, wanted what _our _boss couldn't give us… even if we did have the money, we weren't going to give it up just like that. Dad was always stubborn… s-still is! B… but… he's changed… stagnant if you would… since then…"

He paused, cutting himself off before his lie was found out. He had to make her believe this. He had to get what he need from her. And he definitely had to make sure that Batman wasn't going to find out about any of this.

"What were you guys doing that a mob boss was after you?" Zatanna muttered quietly, eyes wide in surprise.

Dick tensed at the question, interlacing his fingers and tapping them together. His eyes studied them hard, gears in his head turning faster than ever. To lie or tell the truth? If he was honest, Batman might kill him, but it would add to the story and get him what he needed. If he lied, his hide was saved but Zatanna might find out and never help him again.

"Circus," he blurted fast before he could regret it, swallowing hard and earning a curt nod encouraging him on. "We were acrobats. But… anyway…"

He took a deep breath, watching the ceiling for the right words before they hit him hard and he continued on with a bit of a stutter for show.

"Some uh… _things_… happened… lots of people were hurt… but I… er… _we… _managed to… survive it… we got out a… alive. I thought the mob boss gave up on us. I thought he decided taking everyone I loved out was enough. Everyone else _we _loved… I actually thought we were hidden… I left the circus life, moved far from it… w-with them! With them… and we dropped from the grid for a while…" he exhaled hard, bunching up his grip in his jeans.

_Dropped six feet under… _he thought to himself, swallowing past the knot in his throat before continuing.

"But he… he found us… He's going to k… he wants to… he's… he's going to kill my… p-parents… I can't," tears welled in his eyes and he felt ready to give this up, the lie he was spinning bringing up feelings he wanted six feet under with the two people that had made up his world, "can't… lose… them… They're all… all I have."

Zatanna was quick to put her arms around his neck, resting her temple against his shoulder and gazing upwards through her eyelashes at him. Normally when he was thinking about his parents, on the verge of tears, he was ready to kill anyone willing to touch him. Dick didn't raise a hand this time though, just enjoying the loving touch with eyes shut tighter than a cell door at Arkham.

"Don't worry, Blue," she whispered, using his nickname tenderly with her own eyes shutting too, "I'm not going to let you lose them. It… it never honestly stops hurting, I can tell you that… and mine isn't even dead… I don't think I could stand to see you in that much pain."

She held him a moment longer before she felt her hug sufficient enough, leaning her head up and kissing the corner of his chin before pulling her arms away and back to her side. The ebony stared at the gloves, focusing before she confidently parted her lips.

"Esiugsid sih ylimaf," she tried, but the air around her fingers condensed, tightening her face, "Sorry Nightwing… for… some reason… it's not letting me hide them."

Dick's face flushed at the comment, not wanting to be caught at a time like this, two hot streams of tears coursing down his cheeks at a simple blink. It was pure accident, his body flushing itself out, but it ended up enough to stop the questions she was prepared to bombard him with in a heartbeat. She was quickly kneeling on the bed beside him, cradling his face in her hands and wiping the tears of gently.

"I have another idea," she assured him, pulling her hands back and rolling up her eyes, "Esiugsid yrosecca dleihs."

This time, a necklace fell into her hands with a golden gem on the end that resiliently outshone the golden hoops on the magician's lobes. She held it for a moment before she set it in his opening palm, closing his fingers around the crystal.

"What is this?" Dick asked in awe, raising his gaze from the glinting jewel to her matching gaze.

Zatanna sat back down beside him, curling her knees up beside her and sitting in a professional way for whatever reason suddenly peaked her interest.

"It's a disguise charm. The wearer is hidden in sight from anyone not in the loop. A few adjustments can hide _both _of your parents because I imagine they're… close… I mean, right?" she hesitated, head cocking to the sight.

Dick stared harshly down at his knees, a tear drop staining a small navy circle on the jean fabric sheltering them. He was amazed his lip hadn't torn in two from how harshly he bit it at that comment to keep from sobbing.

"Y..yeah…" he swallowed even harder, his voice breaking nonetheless, "In… inseparable… Thanks, Zee."

He got to his feet, a hand to the back of her neck, pulling her in to tenderly kiss her forehead.

"I owe you."

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Dick secured the necklace around Artemis' neck, his tongue separating his lips until he pulled back and had his hands firmly on his hips.

_I can't lose them _he thought to himself with a small smile, his gaze going from Artemis, to Kaldur, to Wally, _They're all I have left._

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**[1] Credit to Finn the Human. **

**I regularly hate Chalant, but refer to the above A/N for reasoning. **

**-F.J. III**


End file.
